State’s annual credit plan fixed at ₹1.86 lakh crore
The Hindu
Priority sector to get ₹1.44 lakh crore; non-priority sector lending at ₹41,681 cr.
The annual credit plan of the State for the current financial year has been fixed at ₹1.86 lakh crore with priority sector lending pegged at ₹1.44 lakh crore, marking 77% of the total credit plan. Credit to agricultural activities takes a major chunk of the priority sector lending at ₹75,977.72 crore estimated for 62.36 lakh accounts. Of this, ₹59,440.44 crore has been earmarked for crop production, maintenance and marketing and another ₹16,537.28 crore for investment credit and allied activities. Agricultural term loans for infrastructure are pegged at ₹3,895.61 crore and those for ancillary sector at ₹11,668.38 crore, taking the total agriculture credit to ₹91,541.71 crore spread over 63.67 lakh accounts and constituting 49.2% of the total credit plan. Credit for the MSME sector is estimated at ₹39,361.16 crore amounting to 21.16% of the credit plan.
The municipal bus stand auditorium in Malappuram was packed. But nobody quite knew what to expect. After all, a new event was making its debut at the State School Arts Festival. The moment V.G. Harikrishnan started his rendition of Pyar bhare do sharmile nain..., everyone was convinced that Ghazal was here to stay. The student from GVHSS, Atholi (Kozhikode), was applauded loudly for his rendering of the timeless ghazal sung originally by Mehdi Hassan.

For the last few weeks, several wards in Madurai city have been getting piped drinking water through a new drinking water scheme. The sweetness of the generously supplied water has led to loss of business to several suppliers of canned drinking water in the city. But, not many know that the water supplied to the houses in Madurai is directly drawn from Lower Dam of Mullaperiyar Dam in Idukki district of Kerala.











